


Let Hope Be Not Abandoned

by Persephone_Kore



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: F/M, Forced Marriage, Gen, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 03:30:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2797934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persephone_Kore/pseuds/Persephone_Kore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The early days of Bill and Barry's parents' marriage. Written using information from the third <i>Girl Genius</i> novelization.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Hope Be Not Abandoned

* * *

Teodora knew all the stories people told about Mechanicsburg. If she hadn't, she would have heard them during her very brief engagement. Although she did hear a few new ones from its lord and master -- and hers now, she supposed -- about its internal affairs. Saturnus Heterodyne was in a happy and garrulous mood on the journey back and held forth about having been magnetized as a boy (he merely had an excellent sense of direction now, but his father had taken a few tries to get the calibration right, resulting in Saturnus throwing a screaming tantrum when he got stuck to the inside of the iron child cages), his parents' romance (Teodora wasn't sure she believed his mother leading an army against Mechanicsburg had necessarily been intended as a proposal, but it wasn't actually _implausible_ ), and his fun uncle whose favorite hobby was provoking people to attack the town. 

"Did he get your parents together?" she couldn't quite resist asking. 

"Oh, no, no. I don't think we'd done anything unusual to provoke _her_. She just showed up. That's how everybody knew it was love."

"Some people," Teodora said, "send letters or flowers and _ask_ instead of showing up with an army to demand what they want."

Saturnus sniffed. "Seems a bit tame. If they'll take no for an answer, what makes you think they actually care?" 

"If they'll take no for an answer, it means they actually care what _I_ want," she said frostily. 

He grinned, unchilled. "But I'm the one who's got you." This was undeniable. "And you can have whatever else you want, of course. Within reason." He grabbed her around the waist to kiss her. His knee bumped the clank's throttle, and Teodora squawked against his mouth and grabbed at the controls before they could veer into the neighboring walker and wreck. "Whoops, thanks."

"Right now I want you to pay attention to your driving!" she said.

"I should've designed this with controls that wouldn't get in our way," he mused. "Or maybe something that can steer _itself_." 

She rubbed her forehead and leaned back with a sigh. On reflection, maybe she should have just let them crash.

* * *

Teodora tried to find positive aspects to the situation. She was going to have to live with it for a long time, after all. She really _did_ have to admire -- resentfully -- the Heterodyne ancestors' selection of where to plant their fortress. The terrain was excellent. All the easiest approaches were also easy to keep an eye on, and even Saturnus's engines labored a little harder to drive the clanks up the slopes. The surrounding farmland was fertile, or had been made so. Lower altitudes and broader plains might be more theoretically hospitable to plants and livestock, but such land all too often lay fallow because no one could defend it from people like the Heterodynes. 

Mechanicsburg's faults did not include apathy. People cheered the returning army from atop the walls, and when Saturnus's clank was through the gates, the roar that went up struck like a blow. Much to Teodora's surprise, he stopped his clank -- in the middle of the road -- and jumped out, then reached up to swing her down into the street as well. He kept hold of her hand and ran across the street, dodging the walker legs, and Teodora decided that he was not merely crazy in the sense that people usually called Sparks mad, let alone Heterodynes, but _apparently in wholly unanticipated ones that involved charging across traffic for no reason_.

They weren't stepped on by the clanks and they crashed into a riotously joyful and rather startled crowd, driving them to new ecstasies and shrieks of "Master Saturn, Master Saturn!" 

He towed her up a staircase that didn't go anywhere but to the top of a pedestal -- she looked up at the statue and was fairly sure it was him -- and hoisted her up with a slight toss to sit on its crooked arm. She grabbed it, as the alternative was falling most likely all the way to the ground, and managed to stabilize. "Look who I've got!" he crowed, seizing her foot and shaking it slightly as if there might be some confusion otherwise. "Teodora Vodenicharova! The most glorious woman in the world!" 

They got louder. They actually got louder. The chants of his name alternated with "Teodora! Teodora!" 

She decided the _entire town_ was mad. Granted, it was also a little exhilarating, but--

A wall of sound and despair struck her and nearly knocked her down. Her head swam and she knew she was going to live out her days here, among the Heterodyne's devotees, in his power; her children were going to be part of this, this.... She glared down at her husband and his outstretched arms, clutching grimly at his statue's shoulder until the sound faded. 

His eyes widened, and there was a dazed pause before the shouting went up again. He climbed up on one stone knee to haul her down, laughing in glee. "You're conscious!" he announced. 

"I know that!" she shouted back. 

"The Doom Bell knocks most people out the first time!" 

"So you decided to put me somewhere I would fall to my death if I passed out? That would be a short triumph!" 

"I would have _caught_ you," he said. "Come on. Time for a party!" 

This apparently meant plunging into the crowd again. This was somewhat closer familiarity with the townspeople than she had really been expecting, although everyone was very formal with Saturnus... Saturn... directly. She ended up sitting on a throne that she assumed tentatively was not normally in the middle of an open square, being fed small cakes, and a little girl towing a smaller child by one hand clasped the other hand over her heart and asked her hadn't it been _romantic_ , Master Saturn coming to carry her away like that. 

"Not really," Teodora said. "Would you find it romantic if he threatened to kill _your_ family?" 

The girl looked blank. Saturn said, sounding rather shocked, "I wouldn't kill _Mechanicsburgers_." 

Teodora opened her mouth to ask the girl to imagine a different suitor, and then stopped and stared at him instead. He actually had moral limits. She hadn't been expecting this. And... even if it was only a question of possessiveness, frankly, there were quite a lot of Sparks with, if anything, fewer qualms about what they did to their own people than strangers. 

They didn't necessarily last very long, of course. This might actually explain why the Heterodynes were one of the older dynasties in Europa. 

"Good," she said finally. "Good. I'm glad to hear it." 

And then he took her to the Red Cathedral, which smelled of blood, to say their wedding vows over again and seal them by having a prisoner's heart cut out on the altar. 

Teodora looked into the other woman's eyes as the life went out of them and swore silently to them both that her children would do otherwise.

* * *

The doors of Castle Heterodyne groaned open without command and a strange voice issued from within that did not so much echo as it seemed to be composed entirely of echoes. "Enter, Master." 

The tones were menacing, although they had nothing on the Doom Bell, but presumably were not meant to menace _Saturn_. He scooped Teodora up to carry her across the threshold and shifted her immediately to one arm so he could thump the doorjamb on his way through, in the manner of rough men punching their comrades in the shoulder. "We're home!"

Teodora turned to peek behind the doors as they boomed shut. Nobody there.

"Is the bed made up?" There were servants along the entryway, but he didn't actually seem to be addressing them.

"Of course, Master!" boomed the echoes.

Of course. Teodora stopped trying to look over Saturn's shoulder. Judging from the redone wedding this might be the first consummation he actually considered to _count_ properly. "Are we going to have to call in witnesses?" she asked drily. 

"We have the Castle, don't we?"

She paused. "You're talking to the... Castle itself?" That was actually rather fascinating.

"Good evening, my lady," the echoey voice... purred. "I've been looking forward to your arrival."

It was also a bit skin-crawling. "Thank you. I think." 

"The bed linens have been perfumed with aphrodisiacs--" Probably _not_ merely reputed ones, either. 

"You can't think we need _help_ ," Saturn said scornfully.

"I thought it would be fun!" 

Teodora didn't think they needed that kind of help either, especially given the Castle's apparent enthusiasm. "Does it do this sort of thing a lot?" 

"Old Faustus had quite the sense of humor," Saturn said, then smirked at her. "Tell it we don't need the help."

Teodora had in fact considered getting drunk enough at their (first) wedding dinner to take the edge off going to bed with a Heterodyne, but decided she'd be wiser to keep her wits about her. It had gone reasonably well. He hadn't produced any devices stranger than an inexplicable but cozy set of ermine pajamas, and he hadn't sought to cause her pain. He had even laughed it off when his efforts tickled her and she accidentally kicked him in the nose. If he remained as considerate, the physical side of the marriage might be the best part.

\--At any rate, he didn't seem likely to have any trouble, and she doubted his Castle cared about _her_ level of enthusiasm.

Perversely, she propped her head on one hand and said, "I can walk, but you're still carrying me."

"O _ho_ , well, if you want to look at it that way!" 

"I have no idea how to look at it, honestly -- what is it likely to be drugging us with?" 

"Oh, this and that," Saturn said vaguely. "It would have made suggestions to the servants. Traditional aphrodisiacs, but ours really work."

Teodora made a face. "Please tell me we are not likely to wind up sleeping in a bed perfumed with oysters." 

_"Ooooh...."_ said the Castle. 

Saturn laughed so hard he actually tripped. The floor caught them. He didn't _fall_ ; the floor reached up and _caught them_. Gently. 

Teodora swallowed. 

"If the bed smells like oysters," he said, resuming forward progress, " _I'll_ insist on going someplace else."

The bed did not smell like oysters. Thankfully. A heady scent of flowers and spice wafted from the bedroom doors as they opened, and a detached part of her mind noted with clinical fascination that her pulse was quickening already. Saturn threw back the coverlet to set her down on a mattress at least the size of three beds put together, into which she immediately sank several inches and sat up again only with difficulty and by dint of pulling herself upright by his arm. The sheets were heavy black silk. He started removing her gown, which did suddenly seem rather too warm. 

"I thought the assistance might be welcome," the Castle remarked cheerfully. "So to speak. He didn't practice much." 

"Hey!" Saturn said. 

"Really?" Teodora asked. "The family is not known for their self-restraint. I assumed he was, er, experienced." Saturn shot her a look that might have been grateful, or perhaps gratified. She tried not to look either embarrassed or amused.

"Well, he had _some_ ," the Castle explained. "But there are many pleasures in the world, and entertaining as they are, every so often a Heterodyne must be reminded there is more to life than the laboratory and the battlefield. I thought he might be one of them until he fell in love with your portrait."

"Fell in... what? First of all, I'm not at all sure he's old enough for you to have started worrying yet--"

"It's charged with preserving the family line," Saturn said against her neck. "It starts worrying around puberty."

"Well... that sounds annoying."

He laughed, breath hot against her skin, then backed off far enough to undress himself. "You've no idea."

"And second, my _portrait_?" 

"Sounds like something out of a fairy tale, doesn't it? I never imagined Master Saturn was such a romantic."

"Quite like," she said drily. A romantic, was he. Clearly the Castle shared the same sensibilities as the rest of the town. What a place to raise children. "Although usually those involve the lady sending her portrait, and I don't recall that. Wherever did he get one?"

"Oh, I think it came in from some raid or other. It took quite a bit of research to identify you, but he was _very_ determined!"

"I see." She hadn't had that many portraits painted, or at least authorized. She'd be tempted to wish vengeance on whoever had let one get into Heterodyne hands, except that it was most likely too late for that in more ways than one. 

She moved nearer the center of the enormous bed, and Saturn was at last climbing on top of her when the Castle made a strange grinding noise that was probably meant to evoke throat-clearing and said, "Of course, I am happy to offer suggestions and supplies based on an extensive catalogue of the generations of--"

"Castle," Saturn bellowed, "shut up!" 

The next words spoken in the room were when Teodora stared up at the ceiling and said in her husband's ear, "I want a house. One that doesn't talk."

Saturn propped himself up on his elbows, still breathing hard. "Okay."

* * *

It crossed her mind to wonder what the townspeople thought about her living outside the Castle. Certainly there were worried looks and whispers -- but Saturn threw himself into the arrangements with a cheerful enthusiasm that seemed at odds with her insistence on living apart from him, and, after all, he visited her regularly and called her to the Castle likewise. She held up her end of the bargain, too: her abdomen was rounding within months. 

She'd been sent for and was on her way to find Saturn -- patiently following the Castle's roundabout directions to what was most likely one of his laboratories, unfortunately -- when she encountered a man she had not been introduced to before. He was slender of body and had wispy grey hair and a vague expression; his hands trembled slightly, probably with age; he looked rather distracted and was humming almost inaudibly to himself; and he was strolling through the Castle with more the air of Saturn himself than one of the servants, even the seneschal von Mekkhan. Teodora wondered if she should speak, but he wandered past her without appearing to notice her existence. 

Then he stopped, turned around and came up after her, and put a hand on her shoulder. It was a remarkably strong hand for as frail as he looked, and it was just as well that she halted for him anyway, because the Castle helpfully seized hold of her feet. 

The strange man stooped to peer into her face. Then he put on a complicated pair of spectacles whose framework extended to adjust an array of lenses, and peered at her through them. Teodora returned the scrutiny in the same silence. 

"Ah," he said at last. "You'd be Saturn's young lady, I take it."

"Yes," she said.

"Well done, boy," he murmured, possibly to the absent Saturn, and then folded away the spectacles and mostly focused on her face again. "Would you like him magnetized?"

Teodora paused. "Pardon?"

"The child!" He patted her abdomen. Well, it was, apparently, his grandchild. "Do you want him magnetized?" A chuckle. "Saturn might have told you there were a few early calibration problems, but those did have their uses, they certainly did. Kept the little ones out of the way until you wanted them! I can still do that too, if you like."

He was consulting her. Well, that was something. "Ah," Teodora said, "maybe just the level for sensory navigation, actually. There are things I'd rather not risk getting stuck to babies, or vice versa."

"Fair, fair," he said, then patted her on the shoulder. "Well, I'll be off, then." He started off down the hall again, wavering slightly.

"Do you--" She bit back _need help_ just in time to avoid the risk of insulting him and finished a bit weakly, "--want company on your walk?"

He chuckled at greater length that time. "Oh, no, no, you don't want to do that. Young Saturn's most likely waiting for you, and from what I've heard, you wouldn't like it where I'm going."

"Quite possibly not," Teodora said, and then, definitely against her better judgement, "Where _are_ you going?"

His voice rose to a cackle. "The seraglio!"

"Oh," she said. Of _course_ the Heterodynes had a seraglio. She wondered if Saturn used it and was surprised by the hot flush of anger. She didn't even want to be married to him and she was jealous? --Well, yes. She was. He'd decided to marry her, after all. He could at least act like it. "You're quite right, I think I _won't_ join you, then." 

"You might learn something," the Castle said. 

"That is a possibility, but I believe my husband wanted me?" she said pointedly. 

"Oh, very well."

When she finally reached the laboratory, she called into it, "Darling?" 

Which was always at least a little bit ironic, and Saturn came out grinning with anticipation of an argument. "Now what's happened?"

"Your father offered to magnetize the baby. I hadn't even realized he was alive."

He blinked at her and then burst out laughing. "Did you think he wasn't?"

"Well, you seem to be running things yourself--"

"Oh, yes, he basically told me to go ahead and take over--"

"And I assumed he'd have been at your wedding in the Red Cathedral! How on Earth did I go this long without meeting him?"

"You don't live in the Castle," Saturn pointed out. She listened for an edge of annoyance, but he only sounded amused. "He rarely leaves it anymore. As for the wedding...." He shrugged. "He doesn't like to be interrupted. I don't try to distract him from his own pursuits unless it's strictly necessary. You don't want to either." 

There was a note of warning in the last bit, dissonant with the old man's unexpectedly mild appearance. Teodora didn't doubt it in the slightest. "I'll keep that in mind. Unless you meant to go to the seraglio, we're probably safe for the moment."

He grinned wolfishly at her. "No, I was thinking our own bed, but first I wanted to show you--" 

From inside the laboratory, a strained voice croaked, "Is everybody in this place having sex but me?"

"Probably!" Saturn called over his shoulder, then turned back to face Teodora, but she'd already ducked around him on the other side and was on her way in. She heard his footsteps behind her. "Heroes, you know," he said. "This one tried to sneak in looking for me. The Castle played with him a bit, but he's still got some use left in him. Spirit, too."

Use apparently meant vivisection. The man on the slab was only _mostly_ on the slab: the length of his intestines, for example, had been spread out for easy viewing. Part of his skull had been removed and one leg opened. And he was still conscious and talking, though his face was gray with pain. He focused on her and the corners of his mouth twitched upward in the ghost of a grin. 

"Lady," he said. "I came to rescue you."

Teodora closed her eyes against the hot sharp sensation of tears. "I'm sorry," she said. "I couldn't have come with you anyway." She turned on Saturn, teeth clenched. "This is what you wanted to show me?"

"I should have known you'd take on about him," he said. "He _was_ planning to kill me, you know." 

"Were you just going to leave him like this?" she demanded. 

Saturn looked the man over. "I'll come back and take another time point in a few hours."

"At least give him an anesthetic," she growled. "Or let me do it." She knew how. She knew _enough_.

Saturn rolled his eyes. "Fine. Morphine's over there." 

"How'm I gon'... escape if you...."

Teodora put a hand over the prisoner's mouth. "You hush." 

He wasn't capable of escaping. Not even if it weren't for the Castle. He probably knew it, too.

Her hands trembled slightly as she modified the IV solution and wondered how closely her husband was watching the dosage. 

"Are you finished?" Saturn said. _Now_ he sounded annoyed.

"Yes." Teodora swallowed. "Let's go to bed." 

The prisoner wasn't going to wake up again, either. 

God help her, it was the best she could do.

* * *

Teodora crested a hill, stopped, and scowled at the comparatively inoffensive pastry shop ahead of her. Walking through Mechanicsburg could be something of a minor adventure at the best of times and she'd learned to avoid whole quarters of the place, but she knew where she meant to go and this had been a through street just last week. It could be a noisy town, true; it was noisy today! But she wouldn't have expected to miss this level of construction.

At least the food looked good. She went in to buy a snail rolled in buttery cinnamon phyllo and a cup of tea -- coffee made the baby kick -- and realized she recognized the woman behind the counter. She wasn't entirely sure, as she was still finding new things and there was a lot to find, but.... "Doina?" The attentive look in response was, she decided, almost certainly the kind that resulted from actually getting the name right, rather than _You are a Heterodyne's wife so I'm paying attention anyway_. "Weren't you just two streets over?" _Yesterday?_

"Oh, yes, Mistress. We were moved for the battle!" 

Teodora paused and swallowed a mouthful of pastry without chewing it properly. Fortunately between the butter and the snail it was slippery. "Battle?" 

"Yes, Mistress." Doina waved a hand in the general direction of the back of the shop. "The clanks were going to come through the gates -- Mistress Teodora!" 

Teodora brushed past the counter and its proprietress and -- yes, there it was -- out the back door into an unfamiliar alleyway before she stopped to analyze how nonsensical this was. Doina had behaved as if nothing was wrong -- business as usual, just a little excitement. Moved the shop for a battle? With all the ovens? _During_ a battle, as clanks came through the gates? 

And assuming all that was somehow true, what on Earth did she think she was going to do about it, exactly? She was armed, but that was in case of experimental monsters escaping, not something heavy enough to deal with war clanks! And presumably there was an army handling it. With Saturn. The army that took _her_ home. _That_ army.

In an infamously impregnable town. _How_ were there clanks inside the gates?

She swallowed the last of her snail, still walking fast, looking for a way through, looking for someplace to get a better weapon. The lampposts were unnecessarily complicated and she'd seen them made to burst into flames for show; maybe she could do something with -- 

\-- Where were all the lampposts?

This situation was looking stranger by the second. And she could hear the battle. Something had evidently gone very wrong -- she caught herself and amended: or right. But rationally that was unlikely. Most Sparks who would improve Mechanicsburg by overrunning it had more sense than to try.

There were no cross streets going toward the noise. There were no gaps between buildings. This was impossible. Teodora snarled under her breath and started trying back doors. Doina's hadn't been locked. On the fourth try she found herself in a butcher's shop; at least some places in the damned city had a decent reason to smell of blood. She shut the door behind her and stalked past hanging carcasses, something that appeared to be a large black jelly on the floor, and the startled butcher. "Hey, lady, you can't just--"

She turned and _looked_ at him. 

He gulped. "Mistress. I don't think you should go out there." 

The front windows were reinforced with metallic lace and partially boarded up and there were still crumbs of shattered glass panes on the floor. Teodora found a spare meat hook and held it up. "May I?" 

"It's yours, my lady," the butcher said rather hopelessly. 

Teodora wrenched the front door open and slammed it shut behind her, then extracted the heat ray concealed in her skirt. She scanned the arena -- it _did_ look like an arena; what on Earth had Saturn been _doing_ \-- and there were the missing gargoyle-lampposts, not only in flames but flying. The enemy's sigil didn't belong to anyone she'd balk at fighting. The ray _really_ wasn't enough to handle a well-armored clank, but joints were generally vulnerable, and she sighted and fired at the leg of the nearest clank. 

The results were less than satisfactory but definitely spectacular. Part of the beam struck true enough to soften the metal and buckle the leg. But there must have been some kind of shielding, because the rest of it _bounced_ wildly. 

The clank she'd hit listed, and another one raced over and -- Teodora was fairly sure a _stone wall_ smacked into it from one side, squared-off rocks tumbling over the top, but she was preoccupied at that point with the fact that it was picking her up. She dropped the gun, crouched a little to make sure it didn't get her abdomen and brought her arms up sharply so it couldn't trap them -- she could feel the gripper bruise her ribs. She attacked the hinge with the meathook and fell --

\--That was a little higher than she'd realized, oops -- 

\--A Jäger catapulted through the air and caught her, bringing her to a jarring but safe landing next to Saturn, who immediately shoved her back into the Jäger's arms. "Get her out of here!" He looked around somewhat wildly and then waved a hand. "Oh, forget it. Castle, just smash them!" 

Before Teodora's incredulous eyes, a number of buildings -- including the butcher shop she'd just come out of -- converged on the walker clanks with a deep rumble. And then backed off to the sides of the street, leaving mangled metal behind. 

For several seconds everyone watched the ruined clanks suspiciously. Then people started coming out the doors to cheer. 

Saturn grabbed her by both upper arms and roared, _"What did you think you were doing?"_

Teodora flushed. "I thought that was fairly obvious!" It hadn't worked very well, admittedly, but still!

 _"Were you **trying** to get yourself killed?"_ Saturn continued at full volume. "Or abducted?" An ugly expression swept over his face. "Was that it? You want someone else to carry you off?" 

That was _entirely_ unfair. _"Are you an idiot or do you think I am?"_ she shouted back. " _Once was more than enough!_ For God's sake, even assuming you wouldn't destroy everyone I love if I left, do you think I want to wind up as somebody's experimental subject? Or get caught with them when their peasants finally break out the pitchforks and torches?" 

Saturn drew breath to yell back and then frowned. "That's not very likely," he objected. "Not if they had an army worth challenging Mechanicsburg with."

Teodora paused to consider that. She'd been thinking of attacking Mechanicsburg as foolish, but actually carrying her off would imply some level of success. "Well, maybe not. Unless they used most of it up in the effort. The point is it would be a bad idea." 

"So is _running out into a battle with a toy death ray_ ," Saturn said crossly. "If you weren't trying to get captured, what was that all about?" 

"You gave me that ray and it's just not designed for clanks," she snapped. "And excuse me, but all _I_ heard was that war clanks had gotten through the gates. I didn't realize you were _playing with them._ "

"Of course they got through! I let them in so I could see how they worked, and now they're all in pieces!"

"You -- _of course you did._ Somehow I occasionally forget you are a _complete lunatic_. Well, I'm sorry I ruined your fun!" 

"You aren't usually," he snapped. "You--" He stopped. And peered into her face. "Wait a second. You thought they'd actually broken in? You thought I was in trouble?" 

"Well, I--" He'd probably be more obvious if he were offended.... 

"You thought the town was in trouble and you jumped in to protect it?" And he _grinned_.

Teodora folded her arms and looked away. "Well, it's not as if I want it overrun when I'm _living in it_ ," she grumbled. Or at least she'd be very picky about the possible candidates. She didn't want to be protective of Mechanicsburg. They practiced human sacrifice in the Cathedral and manhunts in the Greensward and far, far worse in the Flesh Yards let alone the Castle. But where they weren't dealing with outsiders the people were... just people, and any number of Sparks did worse to those they considered their own than magnetize the children. 

Saturn swooped in and kissed her, hard and with an air of triumph. "I'll make a Mechanicsburger of you yet!" He set her away and held her chin so she had to look into his eyes again. "But don't risk yourself that way again. The Castle can handle invaders." He looked around, frowning, and added loudly, "And it _should_ have been containing the venue better from both _directions_. How did you even let her get here?" A pause. "Answer me!"

"I'm sorry, Master Saturn." The Castle's voice was fainter in the open, less full-bodied, but it still came from all directions. It sounded rather harassed. "I was focused on the battle -- those _were_ rather faster than average -- and didn't realize until too late that she intended to join in." 

"Well, see it doesn't happen again." 

"I assure you, next time you decide to have the town invaded, I'll make other plans," Teodora said sourly. "So. About the Castle."

Saturn paused. "Ah...."

"Reach extends throughout the town, does it?"

"Farther," he said.

"My house?"

He sighed. "Yes."

"Can you make it _not_?"

Saturn pursed his lips. "Technically possible but difficult. The Cathedral has independent systems. But the house would still be surrounded, of course, and the Castle runs the water and energy supply there. Anyway, I want it to be able to look after you if anything happens. I just told it not to talk or move things there unless it's an emergency." 

She could do without the oversight, frankly, but this one might not be worth pushing for. Teodora drew a deep breath and said, "Thank you." 

Saturn looked surprised. "What?"

"Thank you. That's very considerate." She glanced around for a new subject and walked over somewhat stiffly to the butcher to return the meathook. She held it out and they both paused and looked at it. It had clearly not been designed for use as a pry bar. "I'll... get you a new one. In better metal."

He looked uneasily past her toward Saturn. "No need, my lady."

"I insist." 

"...The same metal will be fine, really. It's not normally put to use that much outside its tolerances." 

Teodora's mouth twitched. "Fair enough."

* * *

Saturn's father never did get to magnetize the baby: her first impression of him as frail hadn't been so far off after all, and he died a few weeks later. Teodora was in the Castle at the time, and it told them. Saturn was quiet for a moment and told it, "Go ahead," and he held on to her and covered her ears as it rang the Doom Bell. It was easier that time. She wasn't sure if she was just getting used to it.

It rang again when she had the baby. Teodora, still exhausted from the labor, decided she was _not_ used to it. Her head seemed to echo with it. Saturn, apparently unaffected and completely ecstatic, asked if she wanted to name their son. Teodora tried to think of something besides doom. She was almost tired enough to tell him to do it, but she wasn't sure whether he'd come up with something mythological like his own or along the lines of Ominox or the unfortunate Zagnut. Or, heaven forfend, Koschei. He'd probably think she should be happy about that one, too. "William," she finally blurted. Will and protection. Exactly what Mechanicsburg expected of its Heterodynes, even if she had something different in mind. 

It was a relief when she managed to shoo everyone out of her house, even the servants Saturn tried to leave with her. She was going to have enough trouble teaching her children something other than this town's, than their father's philosophy of life. Mechanicsburger nursemaids weren't likely to care for that plan.

Bill was a wonderful baby, and she adored him. And she was going to be driven to distraction if he didn't learn to sleep pretty soon. Or at least to spend more of his waking time _not screaming_. 

Teodora understood that babies had very limited communication options. She really did. But even when he was full and burped and dry and warm (but not too warm), and she had checked scrupulously that nothing was poking him and he didn't have gas and wasn't ill, and she knew he was tired, he was not content to lie still and sleep. Or to lie still and be awake. He howled if she put him down. He wailed if she took him to bed or sat in a chair. He wanted to be moving and he wanted her to sing, and she'd walked the house until her legs shook and sung so many lullabies her voice was failing, and every time she stopped either one he woke up and cried. 

She gave some thought to crying herself. It didn't seem likely to improve the situation. 

She finally stopped and slumped against a doorframe and said, "I need help." 

She wasn't sure exactly what to expect. She knew now that the Castle could hear. She didn't know if it was listening. Or if it would do anything, if it was. It might not. She doubted it would act out of consideration for _her_. But perhaps it would say something, since a Heterodyne was unhappy. Maybe one of the nursemaids would show up. She'd just have to deal with the consequences, somehow. 

She set her shoulders back and pushed off from the doorway to walk her restless child. 

She was _not_ expecting Saturn himself to turn up. It startled her to hear the door open instead of a knock, and she tucked Bill into one arm, angled away from the opening. His sobs were interrupted by a startled squeak. Saturn raised his eyebrows, and she stared blankly at him for a moment. 

Bill took a deep breath and screamed again. 

"I don't even know how he's still doing it," she said. Oh, wonderful, her voice really _was_ going; she couldn't even hear half the words. 

Saturn's mouth twitched. "Oh, we're all hard to shut up." Possibly either he could read lips or she just couldn't hear herself over the baby. Saturn reached out and took him from her, and she let him and wilted into a chair. Saturn didn't walk. He gathered Bill close to his chest and hummed. 

It was a strange sound. It took Teodora a moment to recognize it as his working hum, perhaps because she usually tried to avoid listening to it while someone was screaming. And certainly he wasn't likely to be hugging them at the time. This time, this close, it somehow muted and canceled part of Bill's cries, even to her ears. He'd mentioned using it to shut out other sounds. She hadn't realized it actually interfered with them directly. The world seemed to sway around her and she wasn't sure if it was an effect of the hum or just sleepiness. 

She really could have fallen asleep herself on the spot, with the reduced noise. She sat up and took a deep breath to avoid it. 

Saturn droned on, and Bill... finally... quieted. Not just because the sound waves were being canceled; he really mostly stopped crying. He made a few more disconsolate noises about being held still, and then she saw his little eyes shut, and then he was only breathing quietly and steadily, sound asleep. 

Teodora watched silently, torn between relief and dread. Her baby was happy and resting and _she_ could rest, finally, without his distress tearing at her mind. Dread because her husband was glad to have a son and loved him, and while that in itself was right and good, they were Heterodynes and Saturn would want his son to be like himself, and she wondered if this was the first of many times he would prove to be able to offer what she could not. 

Mostly she wanted to go to sleep. 

It must have showed. Saturn finally paused, smiling fondly and triumphantly, and held out a hand to her. "It looks like I should be putting _you_ to bed too." 

Bill's eyelids fluttered, opened, and he let out a thwarted screech that actually made Saturn jump. 

She bit her lip to try not to laugh at Saturn's expression. "He doesn't like it if you _stop_ ," she explained. "Why do you think I sound like a laryngitic frog?" 

He muttered something about "Try that again" and possibly brain wave frequencies. "You," he said to her, "bed." Then descended into humming again but took her arm and practically lifted her out of the chair. 

Teodora contemplated simply closing her eyes and falling asleep on her feet. Her feet protested this plan and she went to lie down. Saturn must have gotten Bill deeply enough asleep to stay that way eventually, because she woke up with him stretched out beside her. 

Two years later, Bill was still in perpetual motion, now under his own power, and Barry was sleeping about as much as the average newborn kitten and kept it up even while Teodora literally ran after his brother. Saturn swore he didn't know how this had happened either.

* * *


End file.
